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Google's Morality Meter

Introduction

Morality is a variable thing. What is a crime in one society may not be in another: Blasphemy may be punishable by death in one country, but entirely unsanctioned in another. Child marriage may be a jailable offence in one place and perfectly normal in another. Slavery was widespread and accepted in the ancient world but is now an abomination. Why do these things vary and is there any such thing as an objective morality?

Much of the moral code that a society adopts comes from its dominant religion. Since religions are highly arbitrary constructs of various warped and greedy megalomaniacs, so is the morality that springs from such "prophets".

On the other hand: modern, largely secular nations create their own moralities through discussions (and/or brainwashing) in the mainstream media, the opinions of certain influential commentators and finally through the self-interested politics of representative government. All of this is highly subjective and EVEN IF the laws that are passed correspond to the opinions of the majority of the citizens, such laws are STILL arbitrary constructs of fashionable thought which is seldom based on deep and properly weighted ethical analysis. The opinions of the masses are commonly based on shallow emotions such as fear, self-interest and the desire to protect anything cute, vulnerable or cuddly. Such knee jerk opinions are no substitute for careful long-term analysis and may end up delivering the exact opposite of what was intended.

Clearly neither conventional religion, nor media, nor politics can be counted on to deliver the optimal set of philosophic principles for underpinning the morality of society. Such principles, like all areas of complex design need to be founded on a realistic set of constraints and they must all work with those constraints to deliver the best outcome. Such principles cannot be delivered by a bunch of arts graduates faffing about in a post-modernist haze. They must be delivered by pure logic and mathematics.

The Church Of Infinite Dimensions has seen the need for an objective morality and presents here the required mathematics. The benefits may be some time in coming but eventually they will be enormous. No longer will there be the need for politicians to debate wrongheadedly about what policy might be best for the country; simply feed in the figures and out comes the answer. No more will judges be required to invent punishments based on intuition and precedent; just ask the computer. Each case is different and each case will have its own sanction, objectively delivered by formula.

Objective morality will FORCE governments, courts, companies and individuals to do the right thing by Orithia. Once people can see possible outcomes ranked by numbers on one metric the pressure on the relevant authorities to choose the optimal will be enormous and the usual prevarication and disingenuous sophistry will no longer cut the mustard.

The Happiness Master-Metric

Objective analysis is built on specified quantitative metrics. Once we have numbers that are arrived at objectively we can build objective datasets, analyse that data, develop theories and use mathematics to produce formulae to model it. Once those formulae are proven correct in every proper test we can use them as a basis for development of new technologies, culture and laws.

The metric for objective morality is "Happiness". It is measured on a scale of +100 to -100. Where +100 is the most perfect feeling of satisfaction, ecstasy, capability and security you could wish for, (Heaven basically), and -100 the most extreme feeling of pain, stress, insecurity and disability imaginable, (Hell basically). 0 is the point of neutrality where you feel neither happy nor sad.

Mathematics

Anything properly scientific and correct must be represented in the language of Science: Mathematics. It is only in pure mathematics that things can be properly proved, analysed and solved. I make no apology for this. Science is not easy and nor is maths, but the right way, the honest way, the true way is seldom easy. Non-mathematicians will struggle with this section of the Karimath but I assure you that it is not really that difficult and mathematicians should find this quite straight forward.

Essentially the process is to graph the happiness of all life forms over the course of their lives and isolate the effect of a given event on the total happiness of the world. This is done by summing all the components of happiness due to the event for each life form affected by the event, scaling the values according how directly the life form was affected and according to their species and adding them all together to give a single happiness function for that event.

This function is then integrated to get a single figure that represents the total happiness value for all life forms over all of Orithia due to that event. If the number is negative then the event was bad. If it is positive then the event was good. The greater the number the greater the effect.

Total happiness values can be used to compare events and to determine matters such as: whether the end justifies the means or whether a man is good or evil.

Total happiness values can also be guessed at or predicted using known values and heuristic techniques to make an educated assessment of the probable effect of a possible future action. Thus it is that Government policy choices can finally be looked at in an objective manner.

As I proceed, step by step, to derive the final equation you will need the symbol meanings. Here they are: Capital letters are used for functions, operators, constants and indicators, Lower case letters are used for variables.

A – attenuation for given submetric, B – capability submetric, C – for all consciousness levels,
D – dimensional attenuation, E – due to one event, F – pleasure submetric,
G - , H – happiness (aga), I – indirect, J – social submetric,
K – happiness (kala), L – self-respect submetric, M – happiness function for submetric,
N – no, O - stress submetric, P – for the whole population,
Q – happiness (all life), R – for all removes, S – for all species,
T – total happiness, U – (universal) for all removes, species, consciousness etc,
V – value attenuation by species, W – , X - instantaneous, Y – Yes, Z – .

a – event start time, b – second stage start time, c – consciousness level,
d – death time, e - natural log base, f - function, g – , h - , i - ,
j - first stage maximum, k - second stage maximum, l - lifespan,
m – submetric number, n – number of submetrics, o - offset,
p – population of a given group, q - period, r – dimensional remove,
s – species, t – time, u - utility, v - , w – weight (mass),
x – reserved for calculation, y - reserved for calculation, z - evolutionary rung.

Happiness Components

Various philosophers have contemplated what makes a person happy. The various systems produced look quite different to each other as they each look at the problem from a different angle. Most of these systems were not produced by mathematicians so their metrics or categories are often not orthogonal and are often not functionaly well divided: some categories should probably be broken into multiple categories and others should be combined into one.

My categories are chosen based on probable biochemical markers that may be objectively measured, thus they tend to be grouped by effect rather than cause, the opposite of most of the other systems. This approach results in a reduction in the number of categories with many items grouped together that are functionally different. For example: Matters of fundamental physical security such as shelter, warmth, food and water find themselves part of the Stress submetric, as being cold and hungry manifests in the body as stress. Another example is the matter of health: Illness and injury have two components of interest here: Pain, which belongs in the Pain submetric and disability, which belongs in the Capability submetric. Thus it is that "health' which might otherwise be given its own category is split into two and grouped with others. There are numerous other apparent anomolies of my system but they all result from its effects rather than cause basis.

Abraham Maslow came up with his famous Heirachy Of Needs back in 1943. His lowest two levels, "Physiological Needs" and "Safety Needs" mostly manifest as Stress in my system. "Social Belonging" is the same as Social in my system. "Esteem" and "Self-Actualisation" I see as ultimately the same thing: Self-Respect as esteem from others is really just there to boost your self-esteem and true self respect can only come from self-actualisation.

Manfred Max-Neef, Antonio Elizalde and Martin Hopenhayn developed their post-modern Fundamental Human Needs system with 9 non-heirarchical categories in 1986. In addition to the usual "Subsistence" and "Protection" they included "Understanding" which could play a part in Self-Respect, "Participation" which I would place in Social, "Leisure" in Pleasure and "Creation", "Identity & "Freedom" all of which I view as part of Self-Respect. Their system is mostly an arbitrary collection of airy-fairy ideals of little practical relevance to the real world. It is best consigned with all other manifestations of the Post-Modern brain cancer to the dustbin of history.

Anthony Robbins, a "motivational speaker", came up with his "Six Human Needs" which are "Certainty" which I put in Stress, "Variety" which I shall dismiss, "Significance" which is Self-Respect, "Love and Connection" which is Social and "Growth" and "Contribution" which belong in Self-Respect.

Numerous ancient philosphies such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism and Roman-Catholicism have different ideas about what makes happiness but these are nearly all built on arbitrary religious dogma propagated by various self-interested religions and can thus all be summarily dismissed. Others, such as Aristotle's are built on fallacious axioms and may also be dismissed.

John Stuart Mill was a proponent of "Utilitarianism", which may be seen as a fore-runner of Objective Morality, however his attempt to detail what happiness is was too feeble to be of any use to us here. Friedrich Nietzsche deplored what he saw as Mill's pursuit of base pleasure as he thought it precluded high achievement, but really he was simply taking a narrow definition of "happiness". The Martian System is much wider as you can see and the Self-Respect sub-metric allows all the selfless and high minded activities that Nietzsche was seeking to foster.

Martian Happiness Submetrics

In the Martian system the master metric Happiness is composed of various submetrics, including but not limited to: pain, capability, stress and self-esteem. Each metric is scored with a rank system from -10 to +10 which is then mapped exponentially to a score between -100 and +100. Each submetric needs to be treated differently as they are not all equally important. They are not necessarily symmetric about the zero point, which must always represent the point of neutrality. Certain events or characteristics can bleed over from one submetric into others although I have tried to keep the system as orthogonal as possible. Some submetrics may be measured objectively using certain biochemical markers, others have no markers, forcing us to use standard tables to arrive at a value.

• Pleasure - "F" (pleasure/pain) - This is a double-sided metric where pleasure is a positive number and pain is a negative. Note that under normal conditions maximum instantaneous pain is much greater than maximum instantaneous pleasure: Does the pleasure of orgasm over-power the feeling of having your leg broken? I think not! However maximum pleasure can be greatly increased with the use of euphoric drugs which may equalise matters.
  
  Pain and pleasure in biochemical terms may not necessarily belong to the same metric but for the purposes of objective morality I will join them together to form a continuum. Maximum pain is -100 and maximum pleasure is +100. 0 is neither pain nor pleasure.
  
  Precisely how pain/pleasure should be measured is a matter that needs work. Perhaps electrical activity in certain parts of the brain can be quantified, perhaps in certain nerve fibres, perhaps levels of certain neurotransmitters and synaptic firing thresholds, perhaps a mixture of all these and more... or perhaps we can just assign a value based on a quasi-subjective list: -100 (having your legs broken while your teeth are pulled out without anaesthetic while being eaten alive by wolves), -50 (breaking your leg),
• Capability - "B" (capability/disability) - Capability is another double-sided metric. On the negative side there are varying levels of sickness and disability which reduce one's happiness directly as well as indirectly. On the positive side there are various levels of fitness and ability which increase one's happiness above neutral. The zero point is an absolute minimum level of capability. ie a state where you are just barely capable of doing all the ordinary things: a typical young couch potato with no special talent.
  
  Note that this submetric is one that can bleed over into others in specific cases. For example: Degenerative conditions like arthritis, migraines and ruptured discs produce physical pain which belong to the "F" submetric. In these cases the "pain" aspect is separate to the "capability" aspect and the separate aspects should each be applied to their respective submetrics as appropriate.
  
  How to measure this submetric objectively is tricky. Biochemical markers for many of the conditions such as endorphins from physical training or pain markers from illness or injury belong in the "F" submetric and are inappropriate for this one. Thus for the time being, scores for capability/disability must be found from the standard table.
• Stress - "O" (satisfaction/irritation) - At a fundamental level this deals with the degree to which your essentials of life are being provided or not. At a higher level it represents the degree to which things are going according to plan and your capacity to handle your workload. For example: When one is starving or cold and wet or vulnerable to attack one feels stressed and may take extreme action that one would not normally consider. Conversely when your household is running smoothly and your job is running smoothly you feel relaxed and satisfied.
  
  Stress levels can be metricated biochemically by measuring hormone levels, stomach acid levels, adrenaline levels etc. Precisely which chemicals should be measured and how they should be combined to give the irritation submetric is a matter for research.
• Social - "J" (social inclusion/exclusion) - This represents the degree to which you are accepted by others in various social circles. Human beings are strongly social creatures and the need to belong to a sexual relationship, a family, a tribe and a nation are deeply imbedded in our DNA.
  
  The quality of the relationship is irrelevant in this submetric, only the depth of the belonging is measured here. If you are married to a bitch who makes your life a misery then that bad quality manifests in the Stress submetric, not here. In this way, what may be seen as one cause is dealt with as two effects.
  
  Hormone levels such as oxytocin may be useful markers for this category along with others.
• Self-Respect - "L" (self approval/disapproval) - This represents the esteem in which you hold yourself. If you can see that you have done the right thing and that your effort and work is of the standard that you would want from yourself then you can hold your head up even when surrounded by critics and enemies. Conversely, if you can't look yourself in the eye because you know that you have let yourself down you feel guilty which can lead to a downward spiral of depression and self-destruction.
  
  Part of Self-Respect is in doing the right thing by others. Since we are a strongly social species the family or the tribe may be as important as oneself, or even more so and consequently the work done for one's group may be as important as the work one does for oneself, or even more so. This selflessness varies somewhat depending on the prevalent culture that the individual belongs to. Child education has a significant effect on the individual's perception of the relative importance of the individual and its society. Having said this, both the self and the society are of significant importance for all humans.
  
  As is the case for Capability chemical markers for this category may be difficult to find. In the interim the use of tables of standard examples is the way to go.

Linearity

The happiness metric is linear even though some of its sub-metrics may be naturally logarithmic. Any non-linear submetrics must be converted to linear units before being incorporated into the master metric. This is because the master metric will be divided, summed, averaged and integrated at various points and we must be sure that each unit of happiness is worth the same, no matter where it is found.

A way of understanding this intuitively is to take two values, one double the other and asking yourself whether two of the lesser are equal to one of the greater. For example are two minor toothaches equal to one major one?

Another critical question is the balancing of positive and negative attributes: Does a lover's touch outweigh the pain of a toothache? Evaluating such questions in your head and by experiment allows the submetrics to be properly calibrated.

Weighting

The various submetrics of happiness are not all equally important so each must be weighted by an attenuation factor before they are combined to form the master metric. The attenuation factor is designated A_G where "_G" is the symbol for the corresponding submetric. The weighted submetric is then equal to A_GG. For example the weighted instantaneous Capability of an agu is equal to A_BB_X.

Instantaneous Overall Happiness

The various weighted instantaneous submetrics for an agu may be added together to give the instantaneous overall happiness for that agu: H_X. Using four of the submetrics listed above gives:

We can generalise this summation to n submetrics as follows:

The Overall Happiness Function

Happiness units are instantaneous, that is, they measure a life form's general happiness at a single point in time. But a life form's happiness is constantly changing, from minute to minute and from day to day. At any time there are happiness impacts from a variety of sources which come and go. Even the pleasure or pain due to a single source changes with time. For example the pain of an injury has a sharp peak at the time of the injury which normally subsides somewhat after a few minutes and then gradually dwindles as the injury heals. Similarly the pleasure of a promotion at work peaks for a time but dwindles as the days go by. Mind you, that is just the pleasure; the well-being occasioned by the extra money is a lasting benefit. On the other hand, the extra stress may be a lasting negative.

The function that shows how the instantaneous happiness of an agu varies with time is called its overall happiness function: H_X(t). Using four of the submetrics listed above gives:

Or expressed as a general summation we have:

Instantaneous Happiness Due To A Single Event

Considering an agu's general happiness function is all very well when considering general matters but in order to get meaningful results in the world of objective morality we need to look at only the effects of a given event on a given agu. To do this we need be able to isolate the component of that agu's happiness due to that event. The instantaneous happiness of an agu at a given time due to a particular event is given by the agu's single event happiness function: H_XE(t).

Isolation Of Instantaneous Happiness Due To A Single Event

We can isolate the effect of a single event from that of all the other events affecting the happiness of an agu by subtracting the overall happiness that would be, should the event not happen (H_XEN), from the overall happiness that would be should the event happen.(H_XEY). (the symbols Y and N correspond to Yes or No).

Showing the summation of n submetrics we have:

This process is only used occasionally however, as once we have tables of standard events we just use the standard values for any event. These standard values have already isolated the happiness function from the extraneous factors so there is no need to revisit that process.

Happiness Over Time Due To A Single Event

In order to properly consider how events affect the happiness of an agu we need to look at their effect in the long term. Specifically we need to look at the total affect over the lifetime of the agu. That is from the time of the initial action (t=a) to the death of the agu (t=d). We do this by integrating the agu's happiness function over the period of effect of that action.

Expanding to show the summation of the submetric contributions we have:

Moving the integral inside we have:

The Principle Of Equality

The Principle Of Equality states that: "Happiness functions due to a single event should be equal for all aga undergoing the same experience." Of course this isn't true at all: Two people experience an identical event quite differently. However, for the purposes of democracy and an egalitarian objective morality it is necessary to pretend that it is true.

In fact, over a statistically large sample we will find that there will be an average happiness function and that individuals will fall outside this at various points according to a normal distribution. For the above democratic purposes it is this average happiness function that will be assumed to apply to all aga, whether they line on the line or not.

* Note that there may be some special cases where in the interests of natural justice it may be necessary to use an individual's actual happiness function rather than the statistical average but these are rare and may be ignored for the nonce.

Indirect Happiness

It is rare that an event will affect only one agu. Typically for every agu directly affected there will be various additional aga affected indirectly. For example if a family member is sick or injured the rest of the family will probably feel unhappy. Some family members may feel it more than others. People outside the family may also feel it such as friends, colleagues and relations.

Generally the indirect effect will not be nearly as strong as the direct effect. For example a child with a broken leg will probably be suffering more than his mother. We can quantify this indirect effect as we did for the direct effect, by measuring various biochemical levels but this is overly time consuming and difficult and may violate the principle of equality, so instead we apply a standard dilution factor which should ideally approximate the true effect averaged over a large number of cases. In any event it will be close enough for a fair assessment.

The greater the emotional remove from the directly affected the greater the dilution factor. The strongest indirect effect will be with immediate family members and that shall be set to 1/4. Close friends and extended family shall be 1/16 and others friends, colleagues and family shall be 1/64. Expressed mathematically the dilution factor is D_r where r is the degree to which the indirect agu is removed from the direct.

The instantaneous Indirect Happiness function due to one event at a dimensional remove r is then:

Expanding to show the summation of the submetric contributions we have:

This approximation may be adjusted later in the light of proper studies.

One Event, Multiple Direct Human Targets

It is common for a single event to affect multiple people directly. For example: the outcome of a football match, a terrorist attack or the reduction in tax levels.

Each directly affected person could have its happiness quantified by measuring the body's levels but again this is extremely inefficient, probably impractical and may violate the principle of equality, so again it is best to use the values on a standard chart. For example a football match win might be a happiness of 30 for a brief period followed by a slow decline over the next 24 hours. Obviously the more obsessed fan will experience a greater effect than the dilettante so the average is what we are after.

Since all people are considered of equal importance in a democracy, the total happiness impact on the population is simply the number of direct targets (p) times the average instantaneous happiness function.

Happiness Of Multiple People At Multiple Removes Due To One Event

Since there are multiple indirect targets for a given event as well as multiple direct targets we need to sum the impact on each dimensional remove of indirection in order to get a happiness function that includes ALL people involved in a given event. Each remove (r) has its own population (p_r).

Total Happiness Over All People Due To One Event

Now that we have the instantaneous happiness function for every human due to any given event it is a simple matter to integrate that over all time to find the total human happiness due to the event:

Expanding and moving the integral inside we have:

Indirect Effect On Non Human Aga

The above formula can generate an absolute number which we can use to decide on the morality of any given event insofar as it affects people. But the Church Of Infinite Dimensions is not just about people... It is about ALL forms of life from the beginning of time to the end of Orithia! Thus it is that the happiness of all agu must be taken into account.

Other aga have different components of happiness, they may not feel some of the human submetrics such as stress or they may have additional components that we do not. For this reason non-human aga should use the generalised summed happiness submetrics function. Exactly what those submetrics are and how they should be weighted varies with each species and is a matter for additional research. For the nonce, standard tables can be used to approximate their happiness functions.

In this way non-human aga can use much the same maths as humans except for the matter of indirection: Non-human aga have varied social structures which give a markedly different result when one considers indirect impacts of events.

• Family/Tribe - This is the human situation which is shared by other animals such as monkeys and wildebeests. Here the individual is strongly connected to its immediate family and less strongly connected to its tribe. This uses the standard human indirection model.
• Pack/Flock - This is the wolf situation which is shared by other animals such as lions, birds and fish. Here the connection to the pack is very strong and may be as strong as the connection to the immediate family. In many cases the pack will be its immediate family genetically. Here there is only one level of indirection. You're in the pack or not. There is no sympathy for other packs.
• Hive - This is a common insect situation which is shared by such creatures as ants, termites and bees. Here the individual is subsumed by the needs of the hive and has little or no individual will. Here there is no individual happiness, just that of the hive which is at one remove from the individual.
• Solitary - This is a common situation which is shared by such creatures as bears, sloths, lizards, spiders and beetles. Here the individual lives on its own except for mating and perhaps the raising of young. Unless the creature is involved in such matters it will ignore the effect of events on others of its kind. Here there is no indirect effect, except during mating and perhaps the raising of young. During the raising period there is a single level of indirect effect for the nurturer and children only.

When applying happiness functions for non-human aga one must limit the general indirection summation according to the social structures listed above.

Value Of Non Human Aga

Considering and valuing the worth of ALL aga is a nice idea perhaps, but does that mean that the feelings of a dragon fly are worth the same as that of a human? If that were the case we would all be laying down our lives for the humble insects who outnumber us as the grains of sand outnumber the headlands.

No, there must be an attenuation factor that diminishes the importance of the happiness of an agu according to its consciousness level. Since humans are clearly the most advanced thinkers and feelers on the planet I will assign them a level 0 on the consciousness scale. Positive levels on the scale are reserved for advanced intelligences that we have not yet met.

Each level below us on the evolutionary tree implies a rung lower on the intelligence ladder, so large mammals are -1, small mammals are -2, birds are -3, reptiles -4, fish & amphibians -5, advanced invertebrates -6, lower invertebrates -7, protozoa -8.

It should be noted that the advanced centres of brain activity don't even exist in lower species and consequently it may be that they don't feel things with the emotional weight that we do. Certainly they don't experience things with the richness of awareness and implication that we do. Does a snail experience the same pain when it is squashed that we would? I doubt it...

The value factor (V) for a given consciousness level (c) is calculated as follows:

We can sum the total happiness of all aga due to an event by summing it across all the intelligence or value levels of all the aga affected by the event.

Expanding and moving the integral inside we have:

Remember when evaluating dimensional removes (r) that the social structure must be taken into account for that species.

Happiness Of Kala

Non conscious life forms, such as plants, are called Kala. They are a vital part of the environment of Arda and their well being must be considered in any moral consideration of environmental alteration. They have a happiness function just like aga except that the parameters are different.

The happiness of a plant depends on factors such as sunlight, nutrient, ambient temperature, water, wind, pollinators, plants nearby for sex etc. The same principles apply as for aga and the instantaneous happiness function of a plant may be expressed with the same general formula, just that the submetrics and their associated attenuation factors are different.

Value Of Kala

Plants are not conscious in the sense that animals are but they are nonetheless alive and have a high intrinsic value. Their value, (for the purposes of the Church Of Infinite Dimensions), depends on various factors including how old the plant is and how long it is likely to live, how large it is and how recent it is in the evolutionary tree.

A big old oak tree has spent hundreds of years enduring the elements, reproducing and providing food and habitat for countless creatures. When it is cut down it will provide fantastically useful and attractive timber for use by humans and other high consciousness aga. Clearly it is worth far more than a common milk thistle or a grass.

A flowering plant such as a rose is a more advanced form than a non-flowering plant such as a fern and is thus worth more. The evolutionary rungs for plants: 0 - flowering plants, 1 - ferns, conifers, cycads, ginkgoes, 2 - ancient plants (horsetails, lycopods, seed ferns, cordaitales, 3 - primitive plants

The value attenuation factor (V_s) for a plant species of given average lifespan (L years), average mass (M kg), rung on the evolutionary tree below flowering plants (R) and how useful it is (U), is calculated as follows:

Happiness Of Kala Due To One Event

This is similar to summing all aga except that the constants and submetrics are different and most importantly, since kala are non-conscious, there is no indirect effect.

Expanding this we have:

Instantaneous Happiness Of All Life Due To One Event

The total instantaneous happiness of all life forms is given by adding the total instantaneous happiness of aga and kala:

Expanding this we have:

Expanding again we have:

Total Happiness Of All Life Due To One Event

Finally we come to the great number that will enable adherents of the Doctrine of Infinite Dimensions to make all decisions for the good of Orithia and not just for the short lives of a few rich humans. The total happiness of all life forms due to one event is given by integrating the total instantaneous happiness of aga and kala due to that event:

Expanding this we have:

Expanding again we have:

Moving the integral inside we have:

And that's it folks! This formula tells you what the impact on all life forms of any given event is in the form of a single number!
Excelsior! (8/2/2018)